People looking for a virtual office address may not know that they can use a mail forwarding service to get an address. These services are not just used to forward your mail; they can also be an excellent resource as a virtual mailbox that you can use online

Why do people do this? For one thing, it makes your home address a lot safer because you can use the virtual office address on your business cards, stationary, and website. Any mail delivered to this address will be scanned in and put online for you to review.

You never have to go into their building to pick up your mail and see what correspondence has come in for the day.

Here are a few things to consider when deciding on your new virtual address.

Mail forwarding services charge extra depending on the city you want to be located in.

You can also get a PO Box for a little less, but again the city makes a difference.

Earth Class Mail Virtual Office Address

Earth Class Mail is headquartered in Beaverton Oregon – they have mail receiving addresses in 19 cities! The addresses vary in price – with New York being the most expensive at $29.95 a month extra, and Oregon being the least expensive premium address at $16.95 extra a month.

Other options are available for $23.95 (extra) in:

Los Angeles
San Francisco
Seattle

You can also get a Virtual Street Address in Delaware for $16.95 (for USPS ONLY), or in these cities for $14.95 (extra):

Chicago
Houston
Miami

EarthClassMail also offers premium and standard PO Box options in a large number of cities for you to choose from. They offer a general PO Box with they’re basic service.

Premium PO boxes and Street addresses in the city of your choice will incur extra charges. You can visit their website for a full listing of the options you have available for your virtual office address.

Basically you’ll need to decide if your address needs to be in the city where your office is located. If you’re just doing business online, it probably really doesn’t matter that much.

However if you’re trying to develop a local presence, and doing business with a lot of people in your community, it may be worth it to pay more for an address in a particular city so people will know exactly where you’re located.

Hopefully that gives you enough information to help you make an informed decision on using a Mail Forwarding Service as a virtual office address that you can use throughout the life of your company.

If you work at home, it might be hard to think about having a virtual office address that is different than your home address. But really, when you’re having things sent to you, it’s no different than if you had them sent to another address while working outside the home. And that’s why you might want to consider a mail forwarding service for your business mail.

In the case of using a mail forwarding service as your virtual office address, you need to stop thinking about the service as being a company that forwards your mail to you. Instead, consider that it’s just receiving your mail, opening whatever you want to see, and putting it into your online account for you to view.

In this case, you would still keep your home address the same, but you would use your virtual office address on all your correspondence and other paperwork. Then whenever you were sent a piece of mail, it would go to the mail forwarding service address. It’s basically the same as using the UPS Store (what was formerly called MailBoxes Etc. in our state), except that you never have to set foot in the actual location of collection site.

It’s a lot more efficient than these old-fashioned mailbox services because your mail is scanned with high-tech scanners making it easily readable online. It doesn’t matter what time of the day or night you end up picking up your mail, you will never have to go into an empty building to get it again!

I had a UPS Store mailbox once – and when I had to work late and go in when it was dark in the winter, it wasn’t the best feeling of security I could have. Then if someone came in behind me I wondered if they actually had a key, or followed me in! Most of the time I was careful to lock the door behind me, but you know how it goes when you’re in a hurry. Now I much prefer sitting in my office at home and viewing my mail from the safety of my personal computer.

If you were thinking that a mail forwarding servicewas just for those who traveled, maybe it’s time to give it another thought. You can choose a virtual office address in a variety of states, and you can also choose a less expensive PO Box address or an actual street address.

Many people know what their permanent mailing address is – it’s their home! But some people would like their permanent mailing address to be something other than their home or office. These people are probably away from home a lot either for business or pleasure.

If you are one of those people, you may be looking for a virtual address so someone can handle your mail while you are away. After all, the primary reason we have an address is so we can get our mail delivered. I suppose the second reason would be so people can find us if they need to. But if you have an office in your home, maybe people driving by your house that looked up your address on the internet is not the best option – for security reasons.

That’s exactly why there is a mail forwarding service available to you that offers a variety of permanent mailing address options. We have reviewed two of them on our site and there is one important thing to notice. One company is a little cheaper than the other but does not have a wide selection of address options. This doesn’t really matter to most people who just want their mail scanned in so they can view it online from their current location.

However, if you’re looking for a virtual business address, you may want to find something that is in your state so you can still have a presence in the state you live. This will solve two problems for you. It will give you a permanent mailing address and it will prevent people from driving by your house and knocking on your door un-expectantly.

Both options will prevent people stopping by; it’s more of a personal preference for most people. If you’re traveling and just need someone to pick up your mail while you’re away, you may not need to worry so much about your address. But if you’re in business, it may or may not be a problem. And actually, some people who do online marketing may prefer that their state is unknown also.

I’ve tried to give you a feeling for what you may or may not need in a permanent mailing address. The only other choice you need to consider is whether a PO Box in that state would suffice, or if you want an actual street. Again, both options have their pros and cons.

If you get a PO Box you don’t have to worry about people trying to seek you out. On the other hand, a street address may have people trying to find you by driving to that location – only to find that you don’t really have an office there. I had this problem once when I rented a mail box, but then again, I had no clue why that person was trying to get to my actual location. Anyway, this isn’t usually a problem these days because people have more of an online attitude than really wanting to search a person out unless they have an actual meeting planed. And, in that case, you would probably be meeting at a restaurant anyway.

Some pricing strategies get better with time, some get worse. But there a few sneakily hidden things that you might not be aware of until you’re ready to buy and are reading the fine print on the total charges.

It’s not always in the fine print either, but it’s one of the hardest to discover by reading the sales material. One of the things I’m sure you’re used to by now is when you’re buying electronics and are asked if you want that nifty extended warranty. I never buy those things! If the thing is going to break I figure it will do so in the first week or so and I’ll just take it back to the store.

But I’m not warning you about extended warranties here. What surprise you might find in a mail forwarding service has to do with how many months you will have to pay when you sign up. For example, one service may charge $15.95 a month but you have to pay for three months in advance. Another might only charge $14.95 a month and let you pay month to month.

As you can see, for one you will be paying a higher monthly rate as well as have to pay more upon sign-up. This hidden charge is not revealed to you until you get to the check out page. I suppose the theory is that if you’ve done all that research and settled on your preferred mail forwarding service provider, you won’t want to stop when you’re almost through with your order because you have to pay for two months that you weren’t expecting.

Of course, there are probably more hidden charges so be sure to read through what you’re getting thoroughly. You probably already discovered that there are increased charges based on which city you want your virtual mailing address to be in and these charges can be as much as the service itself. So think carefully of what is really necessary for you to have, verses what might just be “nice” to have.

When the Virtual Mail Center did a deeper check, we also noticed that one company charged more for the shredding service while recycling was included in the charge so you might want to double check that one also. The reason I write these things is because this is not a decision you want to jump into quickly. You want to know exactly what your options are and what you’re really getting for that advertised monthly fee.

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Testimonial

"I used to rent a Business Mailbox at one of the MailBox, etc. places, but I still had to make the drive to see what was in my business mailbox. Well, no more! Now I just log onto my computer and see what's in my virtual mail box. It just doesn't get any better than that!."- E. Becker Learn More Here